Martin Schöön wrote:
snip
I forgot one thing in my previous response.
Are the numbers below based on empty boat weight or sailing displacement
with crew?


Empty, I believe.
There's a sportboat forum at 'Sailing Anarchy' and they
argue all the time about what is and what isn't a sportboat,
so I'm not sure there is any real definition. Not even the
guys who design them can reach full agreement, apparently.

But I will say, I know a sportboat when I see one!



How about this for a working definition:

"A monohull keelboat that's capable of planing."


Wayne.B wrote:
Doesn't work for me, there are lots of monohull keelboats that are
capable of planing under certain conditions.

Yes, that's a very large playing field.


.... I used to race on a B-29
that was right on the cusp of almost being a sport boat but it really
wasn't. Downwind with 20+ kts it was one exciting ride however, and
we once planed at 17 to 18 kts for over 2 miles. The B-29 carried a
conventional spinnaker pole which enabled it to go lower on a
spinnaker run than a true sport boat, but also at lower speed.


It's very tricky to get the angles right, as I'm sure Martin
S will agree. You can always go faster thru the water by
heating up, but that doesn't necessarily get you higher VMG.
It is a lot of fun though!

I sailed a Johnson 18, a centerboard sprit boat that could
also plane upwind (something very very few keelboats can
achieve) and the asymmetric was a total blast. I have sailed
a number of boats with a conventional spinnaker since then,
but I'm not planning on getting serious about another
one-design without it. It's just way too much bang for the buck.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King